un: sling shot | audio | after wedding no. 2 goes awry

[slippin]

Hey. [ The voice coming through your magical doohickey is low and maybe congested. Whatever this is doesn't sound like good news. Then the speaker clears his throat, continues in lighter tones, his cadence practiced: ] Are you somewhere private? Because that would be a good place to be right now.

[ There's a good twenty-second pause filled with ambient train noise. Time enough to close your communicator, make your excuses. ] Great. [ Again: it doesn't sound great! ] Um. So, uh, earlier this afternoon as I was leaving the movie theater, I bumped into the bride-to-be...or not-to-be...Like. [ A single solid clap. ] Bam. Well, her little attache case went flying and in the course of helping her, you know, recombobulate herself I may have glimpsed a thing or two relevant to our present circumstances.

[ A beat. Hastily: ] Not weapons. Nothing like that. [ Please don't commit unilateral or joint murder based on his intel! ] But, okay, before we go any further, I've got a few questions for you:

Do we know anyone onboard whose name starts with C? As in crazy, or camembert.

Have any of you talked to Prassenze? [ Rest assured: he mangles the pronunciation. Maybe he'll figure it out by the third wedding. ] Had a little heart-to-heart?

Uh, and last but definitely not least, what the hell?

Great. [ Great! ] Thanks. Over and out.



[ ooc: threadjack away! mod-provided deets on the suitcase's contents are here, since jimmy will share all that info but it'll be run through a jimmy-filter and he's allergic to being direct.

(also if your char would want to talk to him in person, lmk and I can do a starter for that!) ]

Comments

un: wisdom

[mashiara]

What, you want a list of everyone with a C name? Or a title. Why? Where in her mysteriously flying case did this "C" appear? Embroidered on a pocket kerchief? On a letter? The way she signs her journal.

( she sounds so distinctly unimpressed. )

You want a list of all "C" passengers, talk to the conductor. Ask him about which tickets, which staff, belong to "C" and you might have an answer. Why do you think it matters on this train?

[slippin]

[ Jimmy didn't run through worst-case scenarios before addressing the group—mainly because these days “worst” has become a word with an ever-expanding definition—but listening to a voice he doesn't recognize, frosted over with contempt and berating him for specifics...well, it's up there.

He gets his internal groaning out of the way before summoning as much false cheer as he find on hand. ] Hey. [ A light laugh. ] I see why you're “wisdom” and not “patience.” [ Jokes!! ] Uh, it was a letter, actually. Good guess. You wouldn't happen to be a world-renowned private detective or anything, would you?

[ It's only partly out of spite that he continues on without further elaboration. To his surprise, he discovers he has a valid question. ] Do you think the conductor'd go for that? Because, uh, I talked to the guy and he gives a new meaning to “by the book.” He might even be part book.

[mashiara]

( Sometimes you're just born without any tolerance for nonsense. Sometimes you learn it on top of being born with that inclination. His babbling around a point is illuminating in the fact it isn't, but that tells her something.

She doesn't smile. She's been working on this train without sleeping for days, and where that should be driving her mad, it isn't. That is unnerving. )

Ask him directly. He's obsessed with tickets, and he can track any one of us. That'd include twice married bride.

( As for the letter: )

If you're looking in the wedding party, there's the Contessa. Picky, in the conductor's words. Doesn't want to be disturbed. One of a handful of particular fools the conductor was interested in not being disturbed, also not having anything stolen from. Is now when I mention he can track anyone on staff or with a ticket?

( Just the slightest pause, before she's on to: )

What was in this letter?

[slippin]

[ As much as the snippiness gets his back up, it's familiar enough that he can roll with the conversational punches. Maybe it's even welcome, in its way. ] Ah, but a certain berobed individual has advised that the “C” in question might be the Conductor himself. [ Personally, Jimmy doesn't buy it—why would the Conductor care what Firo does or doesn't deserve?—but if it helps him sidestep the direct approach, he's happy to float the idea.

The rest he gives some time to sink in. Sounding slightly preoccupied, he recites: ] Um, it was vague. The sender said that what she—Prassenze—wants done is possible but dangerous. But to reconsider because Firo deserves to know the truth. Signed "C."

[ Okay, sinking-in-time over. He lets out a sigh that he doesn't bother to divert from the communicator. ] He just told you about the tracking? Do you know how it works? [ If this question sounds somewhat resentful, it's because he's pretty sure the answer is: magic. ]

[mashiara]

If it were the Conductor, you'd have been reading more about tickets. Sacred limited numbers of tickets. That he mourns.

( It's a dry delivery, but it's factual, too. She cannot imagine him having a vested interest unless it becomes dangerous for the train as a whole, and even as a second hand summary, that's far too blase for the sorts of concerns their creepy conductor might actually have. )

Light, if I could tell you anything other than magic, I would. But it's magic driving this train, magic that deals with dreams, dream elements that some smuggled on board, if that woman, Karsa, had her way. Which she did. We know it. When was this letter dated?

[slippin]

[ What do you know, that surprises a laugh out of him. Almost under his breath, but genuine. ]

Oh, February second. [ A beat. ] It wasn't. But the paper had that crisp new feel and you could tell it was written in a hurry.

Did he say what he was tracking everyone for?

[mashiara]

Theft. I don't know that he pays attention unless it alters the train in some way, or someone destroys a ticket, if that even registers. But it does mean he can tack people for complaints of theft.

( Just saying. Not even pointedly, in reality, though the dryness she'd started this exchange with means she holds as much water in these Accidental Occurrences as, well, a pail with a hole in the bottom. )

New letter, recently written. If it's from the Contessa, either written before this most recent journey, or on it. Which might mean anything, but would seem to mean that she at least knows who the bride is. That Firo might too if she saw her unveiled, but how that's meant to get better other than what... what about this train, or this place, makes it doable but inadvisable? Other than the sheer stupidity of clearly attempting to fool your new spouse because of whatever reasons you decided not to talk with her first.